


Hasting's Diaries

by Hastings_Espinaplata_TOA



Category: Tomb of Annihilation DND
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2020-10-25 00:40:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20715218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hastings_Espinaplata_TOA/pseuds/Hastings_Espinaplata_TOA
Summary: This story is a brief summary of our D&D campaign, in Tomb of Annihilation. Please don't post comments with future parts of the story, since this is the first time we play this campaign. There's also a spanish version, at /20703662/chapters/49180259, here in AO3.





	1. Hasting's Diary (In Common! =D) Part XX-XX-XX

I would really like to have a calendar, I lost track of what day it was a long time ago.

Death is a natural part of life. I've always seen it this way, and so far, it's been my focus as Lord Bahamut's cleric, The Platinum Dragon. However, I must admit that Bader's death has affected me pretty hard.

I needed a guide, so I decided to look for a Platinum Dragon temple in this city. After a while, I found an altar, not quite what I was looking for, but it would be enough. Simple, a bit old, but Lord Bahamut has never been interested in displaying his fortune, but rather his actions. It's enough to meditate about this loss, and how it affects me emotionally.

I'm uncertain on what exactly did Zordos do while I meditated, since he decided to join me out of caprice, since he's never been someone who speaks about religion, so I guess he was lonely or unsafe in this town. Sure, he and I are from... unusual races, let's say. We stand out a lot in a city with so many humans and halflings, me, since I look like a Green dragon who (occasionally, I must clarify) can breathe a Poison cloud, and him, because he seems out of one of the nine hells. His "Attire", to call it something, doesn't help to make people trust him either.

But I digress, today, during Bader's service, one of us got a note. I don't quite remember who, exactly, since I was worried someone would disrespect Bader during his funeral, so I was watching everything with my Eyes of the Grave, one of my Blessings. The note said that Bader didn't die because of a simple disease, and that there could be foul play. If it was true, I remember thinking, this meddling in my friend's life would know the justice of the Platinum Dragon.

We were supposed to go to the "Helm and the Cloak" tavern, although I'm not really good navigating this place, the streets and alleyways are a mess. Luckily, a human who sells offerings for the Gods altars (Thomas, a nice guy who, selling these offerings helps those who are passing through, makes some money and gives out an unexpected kind of help, an innovating idea I wouldn't have had before meeting him), was kind enough to let Zordos and me where to go. A place called the High City, but he told us there may not be free access, since it's a part of town where Aristocrats or nobles spend. Probably, people with more money than the rest, so this may cause us problems.

With his advice, Zordos and I went on. I hope to see him again, if I come back to this city and that small altar.

In the time we walked, we had a lot of time to kill, so I took that time to see a bit more of the city, try to get familliar with this chaos. We tried coming in, with the idea of waiting for Priestess Valerian, Miss Mardred (it's amazing how Dwarves live for so long), and... Nemoriel in the tavern, instead of looking for each other all through the city, but the guards didn't let us go through. I kind of got the impression that it was because of my simple clothing, I mean, I got my tunic and some armor under it, but I don't wear jewelry, or some thing that displays riches, or whatever noblemen do. Zordos looks like a demon, so I guess they didn't want to let him in because of that. And his weapons. By the gods, he's got a lot of those...

Anyways, if I'm honest, I smelled Nemoriel before I even saw him. That elf is gonna kill himself drinking some day, for sure.

If my memory's right, Priestess Valerian and Miss Mardred went on to talk to the guards, while I made sure Nemoriel wasn't going to hurt himself... well, hurt himself even more.

With their help, we finally got through, the excellent group of clerics, dwarf, drunken elf, and demon, not without getting asked that Zordos leaves all his weapons behind (that took a while. Again, how many of those things does he carry?) and his flute... I guess in Zordos' hands, he'd be capable of doing something crazy with it, but it's still excessive.

High City is <strike> ostent pret </strike> different, the way the streets are divided is still foreign to me, but it has a nice presentation. Arriving to the Helm and the Cloak, that one is an impressive building, well, buildings, since it's two buildings connected like they were an archway, for access to whatever is in the other building, I guess. It looks pretty expensive, I don't think I could afford a night in that place. I'm not made out of platinum (=D, get it? Like Lord Bahamut? =D). Anyways, the person who runs the inn, Halesta, if I'm not wrong, helped us reach the place we were gonna use for the meeting. Here, we saw an elf that looks like a sephiroth. White skin, silver hair. Elves are very pretty, their faces and features. There was someone else with a mask, but I don't know what she looked like, although I think she was another one from the same race. There was also the human who called us here.

Syndra was the name of the masked one, and the elf was Ramallia. The human who called us is Hadir. 

The news we got were unpleasant. An internal voice (an imp, I've chosen to call it, for it's dark humor in my mind) made me think we should purge everyone, after we were told that there was necromancy involved in Beider's death. It seems he was sickened and... he died, once he attempted to escalate politically in this city. He was a good man, so it wouldn't be weird that the least noble idealists would want to hurt someone like him.

Something was using Necromancy. It makes people get their life sucked out, to whoever that tries to come back with Divine powers, or whoever is healed with Divine Magics and effects, and this could potentially cause a crisis. There's very good people who need help, and our connection to the Gods allows us to help, if we can't, what will happen to them?

I chose to help, as soon as ending necromancy became the request, maybe I didn't say it out loud, since I don't like interrupting conversations, but eventually, I made my opinion a public one, although the rest of the group wanted compensation for the job. In my way of looking at it, one necromancer less in the world is enough payment. It gives out a message to the others, and that's more than enough.

It would seem these necromancers are hidden in Cloakwood, and in their investigations, these people discovered the existence of a Lich, Zaldara Cordress, the Countess of Horrible Fury (what an ugly name, seems an emotional one, despite being disconnected from her humanity by the Necromancy) What caught my attention was that they also discovered her Philactery, which is the most important thing for a lich, and where does she keep it.

It looks like her philactery is her spellbook. Because of course a spellcaster is just going to leave her spellbook a thousand feet away, so we can take it. Well, at least dreaming is free, right? Maybe she's new in these things, and she doesn't know her Philactery could potentially get her killed, and just like that she will want to talk to us and turn into an acolyte for Lord Bahamut, won't she?

Whatever, tomorrow, pretty early, still before dawn, we'll ship out to her lair. A guy named Callbrax is gonna take us there, and I can only hope he's someone nice, because it's gonna be a couple days before we arrive, and when people don't like my jokes, things get tense.

End of the entry.

Ohh! I told Thomas a joke, when he gave us the offering, and it was pretty funny when he tried to look at my tail to try to understand it =D.


	2. Hasting's Diaries =( Part XX-XX-XXI

My hands are still shaking a bit. I'm trying to write in secret while the others are resting from everything that's happened, if anyone asks, I'll just tell a white lie. May Lord Bahamut forgive me, but my faith is being tested.

As always, I'm getting ahead to things.

We spent the night at the Blushing Siren, a few days ago, before we went to the boat. I like simple places like those, they keep me humble.

Something that keeps me humble is waking up before the sun. To think farmers wake up at those hours daily. I'm barely half a person, if the sun isn't out. Apparently (I can barely remember how I got to our table, I don't wanna know what could have happenedin the meantime), our old companion, Nalfein, found us in this inn. I remembered him as an elf, half in shambles, whose appearance of a beautiful elf is the kind that's a bit hard to see. I'll be honest, elves are pretty, thus, my logical conclusion is that Nalfein isn't an elf. It looks like he's been keeping himself from fight to fight non-stop since the last time we saw each other. since he wasn't in our last quest, we didn't include him in this one, I honestly didn't think he would even be in this city.

Nalfein sant in our table, at some point, greeting us, though I didn't see him. I was considering how intricate life and existence was while my brain was half off, so it took me a bit of time to even notice he was there. We all caught up in our adventures and what we were currently doing. Since he wasn't fully convinced about what we were gonna do, I promised to give him my part of the payment, to Nalfein, so he would come with us (an extra couple hands aren't really something to complain about).

He spoke with the innkeeper, and it looked to me like he was giving him hints so he would get something as an extra, but since he couldn't understand the nuances, I offered him a hand. If the Great Cleric were to see me engaging in these kinds of activities... I don't wanna be put in meditation in the Solitary Room (Note: burn this page from the Diary when I go back to the Temple). I tried helping Nalfein to speak with the innkep, see what he had to offer. It seems he liked me, and with my Dragonborn charm, he couldn't avoid talking to me.

I had to play a pretty dark role, which I didn't really like, then, he asked for a 100 gold coins for a poison to kill someone like Nalfein. Even from the most gentle and merciful of ways to look at it, Lord Bahamut probably didn't like it, so, when we went out, I spent the rest of the way praying while we walked, asking for forgiveness, asking for his fogiveness and explaining my actions to him.

We met Callbrax when we went to the fishing area, just out of town, a Halfling, who doesn't wear shoes, but invited us to his boat. This... "Boat", or a plank that floats, has a small cabin in it. In hindsight, it looks like it's meant for cargo, rather than people. It was pretty wide, and sitting like 30 feet from the shore.

The trip was going to last two days, and we were gonna begin the job on the morning of the second day. Callbrax told us he was going to bring us to a small cove, a bit difficult to reach, so he was going to need a bit of assistance. He would then take us to an entry through a cliff, and we'll enter through that.

The mission was simple:

1\. We had to hurry, and take the Philactery, come back, and Callbrax would take us to the place we needed to go. (First issue, we don't really know where it is).

2\. If the worst thing were to come, Nalfein is in charge of taking the Philactery. (Second issue, who knows if there's even a chance for him to escape).

As a consolation, at least we got a First aid kit, and a healing potion, but, since we were so encumbered with things, we left several of them (at least what wasn't necessary for the attack). Note: Remember where we left them, or we could lose them.

Once we got here, we had to crawl through a small crack on the cliff. Since it was dark, while the others arrived, I lit up a torch. This entryway took us to a stairway, heading downward, and we could see a bit of a cave.

There was a lot of humidity, and the floor was wet, although it wasn't slippery. It seemed good enough for walking. Here's where my calvary began.

While we explored, I heard noises, but my torch (the ** only one ** we lit up for some reason?? the others see in the dark?? why didn't anyone tell me?????) didn't illuminate a lot. Since I didn't see well, when I tried approaching the noise, I used the power of my Eyes to the Grave. Sadly, I did that late, and I bumped straight into an esqueleton I heard, but didn't see. We fought against three different ones. THREE!! and I didn't hit any of them even ONCE!!!!! 

After a part of this battle, when one of them fell, I fell unconscious too. 

I could have died.

As a Death Cleric, It shouldn't bother me too much. it's natural for anyone to die.

But... I'm <strike>afraid.</strike>

No.

Lord Bahamut protects me, and everyone who follows justice. And those who, like me, abhor Necromancy. 

Necromancy.

I got a couple blessings that work as Necromancies. Right now, the little Imp whispers to my ears that I should use them. That Lord Bahamut wouldn't care. That it'll be alright, and good even, to use that power to survive. That I would be much more powerful if I used them.

Why do I have these powers? If lord Bahamut abhors them so much, why would he give them to me?? To his ** weakest** servant??

I need a guide. 

I need to talk to Lord Bahamut.

I don't wanna do something that takes me away from his graces, and even less something that turns me into the kind of monsters I'm trying to remove from the world.

Well, after the others helped me get up, we were able to move on a bit more through the small path, and we made it to a part of the cave with a lot of crystals on the walls. They reflected light, or make it, I'm not sure, and looked untended for. When Nalfein grabbed one, he was covered by light, and disappeared from our sight.

We panicked. We didn't know if he disappeared, he died, or he was disintegrated. The group's consensus was to grab another piece from the same crystal, and pray for the most positive outcome. When we grabbed it, in the hurry to save Nalfein, we ended up being transported to the same cell he did. There, we saw him covered in spiders, tons of them. They looked like they were attacking him or trying to eat him. Carefully, Priestess Valerian, Miss Mardred, and me, slowly killed the spiders, whileZordos tried to bash the door open. 

With a bit of luck, I was able to hit something, finally, and we were able to kill the spiders, saving Nalfein. Once we were done with the bugs, we gave a hand to Zordos, who seems pretty beat up from the previous fight, and we managed to open up the cell. We went out, and saw a dead body, in the cell in front of us. It looks like a Tiefling's corpse, and, since there were undead before, I used my Eyes of the Grave, to make sure. It didn't seem like it was another one of them, so we relaxed a bit. Just a bit, though. We're in unknown territory, and there's a weird noise coming from one of the cells, which we still don't know what could be.

While we organized or ideas, I'm trying to avoid the others noticing that I'm shaking a lot. If the man who's supposed to be able to help the others to survive, using his Divine Magic, (which has failed several times today, by the way) is so shaken off as I am right now, what would that do to them?

I must be strong. Not for me, for I already know how weak I am.

I must be strong for my friends.

May Lord Bahamut protect them, even if I'm not able to protect myself.


	3. Hasting's Diary =\ Part XX-XX-XXII

I feel a bit better, and more confident than in the last few pages of my diary. 

I'm taking advantage that we got a couple minutes of respite since our last fight.

My hands are still shaking, but at this point, I can't tell if it's fear, or because I'm exhausted this time.

The short version? My diary's entries no longer have my Hasting Humor (TM)? We've "almost died", in a couple hours, a lot more times than what a normal person does in a whole life. I'll need a bit before I start getting some humor into this thing (coincidence, by the way, since I've decided to call almost any undead creature like that. this thing)

Heh, I can almost hear the Great Cleric telling me I'm rambling... alright, long story short, we almost died several times again, like that's new, and we also found out that, whoever the Interior Designer is, he must be fired as soon as I finish this entry.

For my avid readers (which I really hope aren't that many, a diary is kind of personal, after all) who remain here with me up to this point, here's the long part with the explanations. 

Zordos really doesn't like things that crawl on the ground. I learned that about him today, so I don't think the whole day has been traumatizing, horrible, and insipid. Ah, the small pleasures of life... well, I say he doesn't like them because, just after we were done with the spiders and seeing the couple corpses in the nearby cells, we went on to explore. Zordos went ahead for a bit, so he could see another one, and got attacked by what seemed to be spiders, or hands, or maybe a combination of the two, the fight was a tad confusing, and some of us were yelling "spiders!" and the others were like "Hands!"... I, personally, believe those were spider-hands.

With our previous spider experience, it wasn't impossible to get a plan so we could dispatch this new group. However, Zordos went down.

One of those damn things was strangling him. It left him unconscious while it dragged again to try and kill another one of us.

Something about that still bothers me. It was weird, even though I've seen it a few times, as a Death Cleric. When a person goes down, they're in fate's hands. They may as well recover, or not, and die permanently. There's a few signs from the body which indicate this, for a trained eye: a simple spasm, or the lack of it, their breathing growing labored or slowed, all of this could be signs that someone is getting better. However, with Zordos, something weird happened. Even when he fell, I saw his body clinging to life. Instead of getting better, his condition got worse. Could it be, this, is what they meant when they said the Necromancy was affecting the people's lives?

Something was getting in the way of his destiny to live or die. That's foul play. Thus, I also got in the way, and played dirty.

I've committed what I think is a sin, for the sake of a person I love.

Lord Bahamut, you know I'm not the best of your servants, and I would rather eat my armor before I go around telling people I made a mistake. I have thousands of justifications for what I did, even when I knew how I was educated, and taught about necromancy, but I used one of your blessings on my friend. Spare the Dying. The necromancy which forces the body to stick to life.

I am aware that I did a horrible thing, for something I consider to be a good reason. I also admit that you, through one of your better servants, will be the one to choose what is my punishment for such an affront. I'll try to avoid it, but in this place of evil, it may turn out that I'll corrupt myself even more, before I return to your light.

When the battle was over, and we killed the two thousand spiders/hands/things, I came closer to Zordos to try and help him a bit more with my healing potion. This brought him back the life those things tried to steal from him. Priestess Valerian also used one of her blessings to heal herself a bit more, during this.

After that battle, we investigated a bit. We still didn't know where we were, even less where were we supposed to go. We kept going through the way to the other cells, until we found an ugly door, which looked like a skeleton, or a skull, maybe, I think it's eyes were shining in a pretty disgusting light. Well, to be fair, Zordos found it, my fear has made me stay behind in the exploration. I blessed them with my Resistance and Priestess Valerian's, and he, plus Nalfein, went on closer to the door, to try and open it.

There were a couple failed attempts, since, as they tried to open it, the door shot an ugly green ray. Nalfein, in particular, got almost hit by several of them, thanks to Lord Bahamut, he didn't get hurt by it. But after several tries, we preferred to leave the door as is, since we have very little supplies, and we didn't want to end up too hurt to continue.

We went on the opposite direction, and we kept going through a Zig-zagging hallway. There weren't many problems, since the walls are yet to try and kill us, and I hope it remains that way. After that, we crossed a new door, where we found a corpse. Nalfein, Zordos, and - Despite the fact I should have a better judgement by now - me kept going while Miss Mardred and Priestes Valerian remained behind, to be safe, if this was an ambush.

The skeleton was completely dead, and didn't seem to be affected by Necromantic powers, but it's hand was trapped in a dark hatch. There was another door to go out, different to the one we used to come in, and, against everything that common sense should have told me, Zordos and I decided to open up the hatch. If there was some sort of creature there, the first thing it would be seeing as he came out, would be Sacred Flames, hopefully, making it reconsider it's options. Unfortunately, what came out wasn't a creature, but water. A lot of it. and in a hurry.

In hindsight, with the corpse and stuff, it should have been obvious it was a trap, and whatever this hatch was supossed to do, was probably killing whoever opened it. However, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, so it takes me a while to understand some things here and there. Anyways, we were about to drown, no big deal, after all, we were only missing the air, as a possible murder cause... which... just keep reading, you'll see.

I tried for a while, with all the strenght I could, to try and close the damn hatch again, but it seemed to be stuck. When I saw Zordos trying to break the door, I left my attempt there, in Nalfein's charge, to try and destroy the door with my Sacred Flame.

In the time it took Zordos, Nalfein y me to panic, the ladies of the group fixed the problem with a calm that I envy right now. It's pretty obvious to me that both of them are stronger than me, and I'm glad I'm their friend, If I can't believe in myself, at least I can believe in them both, and that they will help us with the problems as a group.

Miss Mardred, in a display of strenght worthy of legendary heroes (which I assume are all dwarves, since her people have always been impressive) managed to, One, break down the door separating the room we were in apart from them, two, close the hatch that neither Nalfein nor I, in a joint effort if I may, managed to close, and three, make me feel like a kid watching the woman who will turn into his hero from then on in his life. That woman can beat any of us in a strenght contest at any day, and I wouldn't be even phased by it. 

Priestess Valerian, despite her height (as a halfling) and the absurd amount of water already flooding the room, managed to almost crawl trhough the hole Miss Mardred tore out on the door, and she pretty much swam all the way to us, keeping up with the plan of burning the door using her Sacred flame too. Her intelligence and hability to deduct the idea we had to help Zordos, without crossing a word with her during this stressful moment, simply reveals that my path is barely beginning, and I wish I had that kind of mental strenght, her temperance, knowing everything is gonna be alright. 

Next, was the first place inside this whole dungeon in which we were ** not ** going to almost die. In fact, it makes me nervous thinking how normal that room seemed to be. There were a few armors in the walls, but with our recently learned lesson, we touched nothing. I think that was the right choice, as nothing happened here, so I hope we keep on taking that kind of of great decisions.

Now, checking the place, we found nothing, besides the armors we didn't wanna touch, no undead creatures, nor any kind of similar creatures. Miss Mardred, Zordos, and me, took point, and we went ahead to check the exit door, to see what was expecting us.

This time, it wasn't as surprising as before, but we found a couple ghouls, roaming in the next hall. The fight began... let's say alright, if we talk about organization, on our side. If I'm honest, Zordos got his ass handed back to him, by this couple of undead. With how bad it looked, with thoseinjuries, I chose to use my last blessing for today, Healing Word, on him. My idea, originally, was for him to keep his healing potion for a future emergency, in case something bad happened. Unfortunately, my power wasn't enough, and Zordos was still pretty hurt after it... thinking about this, I get, again, those thoughts about not being good enough, andthe Imp jumps at the chance, telling me I should have used my False Life Necromancy, to make Zordos Feel stronger. 

During this fight, what seemedto have been affecting Priestess Valerian, and me, regarding our Divine Magic, finally left us alone, for this time, we were pretty good at hitting those Ghouls with it, so we could slowly but surely destroy them with Divine magics. I remember Miss Mardred hit one of them with her axe, and hit him so damn hard even I felt that. Zordos yelled out that it seemed they had a special power with each hit, since he felt bad when he got scratched by one of them. Thankfully, it didn't get worse, and, being only 2 enemies, we were able to keep ourselves under control. (Note: it seems we fight better against humanoid-looking enemies, with muscle and meat in them, but not so good with skeletons or spiders.)

I couldn't, after this battle was over, tell how long these two had been ghouls for, and while I was examining them, I remember Zordos took his potion, which means right now, we only got three of them remaining. Let's hope we don't need them.

Well, we've been roaming around here, looking for a way out, or the phylactery, but haven't found it. While we walked, we came across a cloud, of some kind, which seemed to be toxic, and, in my worry, I threw my torch at it, to see if it was an exploding gas. I wouldn't want to survive those ugly creatures, just to be blown to pieces by a fire hazard.

Amongst other things I've learned today about my companions and myself, I discovered that "Resistant to poison" is just a bit different from "Immune to poison". Just by inhaling a bit of the gas, which shouldn't have affected me, I became even weaker. It's amazing there are toxins out there which are more powerful than my own, but I worried a lot by that, I mean, if at my 100% they were doing whatever they wanted with me, how was I gonna fare now?

Luckily, the exploration took us so damn long, that my body was even able to process that toxin, and I was better before we found any hostile creature. Before that, we realized there were two doors that seemed to take us to the same stairway, and when I went up, I heard noises that make me think that's where they are fighting right now. This was a grim reminder that we have limited time for our duties. Even though we went on ahead, slowly, Miss Mardred and Zordos went on ahead on point, with Zordos being a bit more impulsive than Miss Mardred, they found a couple halls, and Zordos found a door with tentacles etched into it. He tried opening it, and it seems like the door didn't like that one bit, since a couple ghost tentacles went out of it to grab him.

In a personal growth story, I've fought three different doors just today.

Anyways, Miss Mardred and Zordos tried breaking the door with anything they had at hand, while I stayed back, trying to burn it with Sacred Flames. After a couple misfires, and attempts, we were able to dispatch the tentlacles, and Zordos was able to release himself from them, finally. Around this time, I started feeling a little better from my poisoning. 

We checked the other halls, since Zordos doesn't wanna date the door who tried to rob him of his virtue (If Zordos even has anything that could potentially be called like that), and we found another ghoul in a room filled with guts, and blood, decorating the wall. From here comes my earlier comment of firing the interior designer. And the killer Doors. And the self-flooding rooms. And the obvious gas leak that someone should have already covered somehow.

Anyways.

Miss Mardred checked another door, and found out that it also led to the ghoul, so, between all of us, we managed to coordinate a group strike against this thing, and while the ghoul avoided a big portion of our divine magics, it couldn't attack me ina pretty damaging way (sometimes, I think undead have somesort of grudge against me, while the rest of the creatures try to kill my companions. This time, it may have been because of the fact that I was the first to hit it, I guess). It's attacks failed, while ours, steadily, connected, one after the others, and we finally managed to get rid of it, so we could rest for a bit.

I apologize for my lack of faith, earlier today, for this time, my divine magic was able to destroy some of these creatures without much of a ruckus. I won't lie to Lord Bahamut and tell him there's no more doubts or fear, but it was pretty nice that I was able to hit something, for a change of pace. The Imp is still there, whispering at my ear for me to use my necromantic blessings all the time. I think that, when I'm afraid, his voice sounds louder. That can't be good news... It's probably the stress and my imagination, and I'm sure the same thing will happen, and the Imp will simply shut up when we go back to town.

Priestess Valerian is also having a hard time hitting anything with her Patron's blessings... or was it a Matron? I can't remember. Maybe this is also a lesson for me, I would think it's kind of rude if one of my friends didn't know who my Patron god is (Lord Bahamut, in case someone doesn't know). In a while, when we rest a bit from the fight, I'll make sure to ask which one of the Gods or Goddesses from the gigantic Divine pantheon is the one she is dedicated to.

While I write this, Beider has come to mind... we used to argue about our Patrons. Not like it was an argument born out of ignorance, or that one of us chose the wrong one, it's just that, even if we followed similar ideals, the teachings of his God differed a lot from what Lord Bahamut taught me. Perhaps, in the future, I could have some friendly arguments with Priestess Valerian, in the same way I used to do with him.

Finally, I can't help but having a bad feeling... I'm afraid there's something about to happen, and I feel some... I don't know how to describe them, since I don't know if there's an equivalent word in Common, but my people have a word for this, this sensation like something is going to happen, that you don't know if it's good or bad, but you fear the result of it.

Culillo.

Even with that weird idea in my mind, this time, I feel a bit more calm than before. I hope things are gonna stay alright.


	4. Hasting's Diary >=º Part XX-XX-XXII

My everything hurts. To top that off, all this crap didn't work for hell. it's infuriating!! this place is horrible. Even if I don't have a lot of strength remaning, at least I'll Kick Zaldara.

Anyways. We went back to examine the door. The damn motif in it is a Kraken destroying a boat, splitting it in half, I think. I didn't see that before, when it tried to steal Zordos' Virtue... it feels weird making jokes at this point.

While we were trying to examine the door, Zordos went on to play (I don't think he had a plan, really, but well) at the fountain with one of his javelins, and it looks like he found something, so he called us.

In the couple seconds it took to get there, he tried to get that thing out using his javelin, but something happened, I'm guessing he's tired, with all the crap in this place, and he fell face first into the blood pool.

With all the tension we handle, I thought it was pretty funny, and I mocked him for falling. When he was back to himself, he managed to throw the little rock on the fountain at me. He said he was feeling bad, while I laughed, and he seemed weakened, even more tired than normal because of it.

Thanks to Bahamut, the demon statue there didn't just get up, because it would have been horrible.

Alright, in the meantime, while Zordos was cleaning himself a bit, out of nowhere, a girl talked to us, and I must have yelled out like a little kid. She's got red skin, black hair, and white pupils, with leather armor and a black cloak. She doesn't look like she has a weapon, but might as well have it.

Generally speaking, she seems like a goth demon compromised with the aesthetic, which I respect, if I'm being fair, and she looks pretty good, if I'm being honest.

In this particular situation, Nalfein, with all the reason in this world, aimed his bow at her, and threatened her, saying the remaining blood Zordos still had over him were the results of an interrogation we just finished.

To be honest, I don't think we convinced her by a lot, with my little kid-like screaming, and the fact that most of us were helping him.

She introduced herself, Ankilla, although I don't know if that's how you write it, I don't know that much Common, and told us she was above, on the surface, where we saw the little trapdoor, where she escaped from a golem. Even if I don't know if she's saying the truth, the idea of fighting a golem is less than tempting, specially, taking into account how we've fared in this place far from the eyes of most, if not all gods. (Bahamut, my lord, I'm having a bad time, you'll have to deal with my complaining for a while until we get out of here).

With this amazing follower, we decided to take a risk with the door, and try to open it.

Our fool-proof plan included tying ourselves to a rope, and if things went wrong, whoever wasn't pushing, would pull from the rest of us. In part, it was a good plan, considering the resources we had at hand.

Mardred, Zordos and I, who have done most manual labor in our lives, apparently (hehe, we're stronger than the others =D), started pushing. Knowing what the door was going to do, we were lucky, at the beginning, dodging some of the tentacles and forcing the door to barely open for a bit. Although the door was so heavy that, since we took a while to open it, more tentacles came out and, in the end, they ended up grabbing all of us. 

Nalfein and Ankilla (the new tiefling), pulled from the rope, to try and get them off of us. It worked with Zordos, since he was "Fruit already tasted" but they didn't want to let go of miss Mardred or me, since we were fresh meat. En between all of us, we tried to get off. Some kept pulling from the rope, but I knew we had to open, or the fear wouldn't let us try a third time. Ankilla used a power I don't recognize, like an energy beam full of brilliant colors, and, with a few arrows and my Sacred Flames(TM) we managed to get rid of the tentacles, once I was free, we kept on pushing.

Ankilla used the same power, an eldritch blast, against Zordos' tentacles, but miss Mardred and I were still trapped. Among all of our efforts, attacking the door, we managed to open it, enough to pass through it without activating the tentacles again. With the help of miss Mardred, a final push opened the condemned door, and we managed to dodge the last of the tentacles.

The guys (Valerian, Nalfein, and Mardred) felt better after this, and we managed to advance through the new opened path. We went forward pretty slowly, and after a few steps, we realized that we were back on the crystal cave. In a way, it was good to risk using the crystals, when they "kidnapped" Nalfein, since he would have possibly died before we got to him.

Even then, defeated, we decided to come back, and backtrack the path we had already walked. Back to the trapdoor and the possible Golem who was chasing Ankilla.

We ignored most of the places we already saw, and held our breath in the area where the poisonous gas was, learning from our previous experience. Where we killed the ghouls, there was a door I didn't see, and we hadn't opened, with the image of a dragon's head.

Despite my intellectual efforts, pressing my head against it didn't really work. I honestly thought it was going to need a dragon, or a descendant from them, as our history rumors is the case for us. I did feel, however, the door wasn't magical.

Since I saw no way out, I checked the other room, with the weapons, armor and shields, while the rest kept on trying to decipher the Dragon Door's enigma.

First mistake of these last thirty minutes: I went alone.

There were a lot of armors and weapons around, some shield here and there, one with two crossed swords in it. I was still looking for something with a dragon motif in it, while miss Mardred tried to murder the door that had frustrated all of us.

The shield with both swords is round, and it doesn't look like it had any traps on it, besides, it had a dragon motif, while the swords had gems in them, one blue, the other green.

I compared the gems (without touching anything) and saw they were different, without any apparent reaction when they were together and I told everyone to come by.

Second mistake of these last thirty minutes: I kept putting my gigantic nose into unknown things without waiting for the others.

I tried not to touch anything. I swear it on the fact my name is Hasting, but the shield vibrated, and the swords went out of their sheaths, floating in the air, and aiming at me.

I went unconscious again. One of those things stabbed me in my side, and I felt the heat leaving my body while I bled out.

This second time wasn't that surprising, but it doesn't stop being a very disgusting sensation. Death is cold, and I can't consider it's a passing place for a new life, or that it connects to the plane of the Gods (if it does, Gods live in very cold places).

In these few seconds, minutes or days I was unconscious, I don't remember being able to think, or feel. However, as a death cleric, I think this gives me some kind of perspective on the words I say to those who have suffered a loss.

I've been a hypocrite with them. They're not in a better place, we don't watch over the rest... if I watched them, I could have done something...

I woke up with the herbal taste of a Healing Potion, which someone gave me to drink, but in the fight's confusion, I don't know who that was. All I saw when I woke up, was that Zordos was on the floor, like a discarded cloth, and the others were fighting against the swords that killed me.

Some of them, I think originally miss Mardred, grabbed the shield, and the swords were aiming at whoever had it. In my anger looking for payback, i focused on attacking, not in getting anyone up from the floor.

Nalfein grabbed the shield and with a great display of skills, threw it at priestess valerian, who was far away to get that thing out of the room. In the meantime, Zordos got stabilized while he was down. But during the fight, some of the others fell down,among them, miss Mardred, and Zordos again.

My third mistake was listening to the imp.

I yelled at everyone, mostly out of frustration than because it was their fault )after all, this problem was my fault, although if they don't mention it, I don't think I need to apologize), that I'm breaking my vows.

I've decided to be condemned by Lord Bahamut and be thrown out of my temple, as a Dragonborn who follows Queen Tiamat before I let my friends die because of me or because of any crap this place throws at us.

Starting now, I won't feel any reserves, for I must fight fire with fire, and against Zaldara's necromancy, I'll use mine to make sure we keep coming back to tear her to pieces.

With some luck and teamwork (a pretty way of saying we all got against the same sword, some times being in the middle of the way of each other) we managed to take down both freaking swords, finishing the fight. I grabbed both. Let's see if Zaldara likes what these things do. Well, miss Mardred said she wanted one of them, so I gave it to her.

In the end, we've spent around 10 minutes trying to break the freaking door, because the shield didn't work on it.

I think we're tired, mentally and physically, because of this place, and we may not be seeing obvious signs the Gods and Lord Bahamut may be yelling at us from their kingdoms, but with my wounds and the wounds of the others, I think we would have to leave that aside for a while.

In a damage report, I think miss Mardred and I, because of the horrible stains in our skins, how pale I am, and our pulse, we probably have internal bleeding. Nalfein dislodged his shoulder trying to break the door down in his frustration, and I think Zordos has a broken rib...

Things are looking preeeety good...


	5. Hasting's Diary >=I Part XX-XX-XXIV

Lots of pain... I write this while we walk to Zaldara, I guess, while Ramallia is guiding us.

Well, beginning at the start, among all of us we managed to open the door, by punching it, of course, in this place far from any and all logic, it's the only thing that has worked for us somewhat.

When we entered, we saw two columns that seemed to hum. Worried, and slowly, Zordos and miss Mardred came in to investigate, while the rest of us waited outside. They found a coffer, that seemed, considering the "security" (another word to describe the undead things we've found) in this place, it has what we came to look for.

Zordos saw a spectre, further inside the chamber, and yelled at us. Thus, the battle began, and we attacked it. The physical attacks didn't seem to hurt it too much, but the Sacred Flame (TM) do work, pretty good, actually. In our focusing, and our intrepid plan of "everyone against the same", the first spectre fell, not without really finding out that there was a second one since Ankilla was attacked by that other one.

Ankilla dodged it, getting away. Those things hurt pretty hard to the ones who are already hurt, which in reality is all of us, and when it does, I think Nalfein fell unconscious, after that, Ankilla tried to open the coffer, I'm not sure about the timing, since in the battles things happen pretty fast, but I think around here is where the first spectre fell down. When Ankilla touched the coffer, this caused the pillars to shoot electricity out - here's where I fell. Again. - These constant loss of counsciousness are showing me something I didn't notice before... I think, I'm not pretty sure, that I can notice things when I'm unconscious.

It's blurry, so I don't have lots of details about it. It may be due to my connection to death. It looks like miss Mardred fell due to the spectre attack, all I know is I heard the unnatural screech of that thing, and a pained grunt from her. Since I didn't hear anything more, I'm guessing she also fell unconscious. After her, Zordos went down, I think, due to the same spectre, and then the already hurt Ankilla fell. I guess she got the brunt of the electricity's attack from the coffer, since she was one of the healthier one out of us...

Nalfein, yeah, I think he was next... I don't want to think about... again, I get ahead of myself. Sorry.

Nalfein stabilized, thank the Gods I heard him again, and came back just as Priestes Valerian had been left alone against the spectre... I'm really sorry about the things such a noble soul like hers has gone through.

While they fought, I felt the warm touch of Divine magic, a Healing Word. This power brought me back to life... just to... to see when Nalfein was attacked, and dropped dead immediately.

It was instantaneous.

I wanted to help. Bahamut knows I wanted... it's... Sorry, this will be hard to read, mi tears have stained much of this page. I just hope the others don't see me cry.

I have no power to bring anyone back to life... I'm to weak for that. I've heard legends of magic that can. Non-necromantic magic, but... it's the stuff of legend, a magical runt like me wouldn't obtain a power like that.

In the middle of the shock, a new person appeared, healing some people, (she was probably the one who healed me and healed Ankilla) in the time it finally took to kill the spectre.

At the end of the battle, while I helped Priestess Valerian to get the unconscious ones up with a giant round of Spare the Dying, we all got the shock from Nalfein's death.

Nalfein, unfortunately for him, we had to leave behind. We don't have enough strenght to carry him with us. We're too hurt. What we could do, was leave his body in a more fitting position for him.

I asked for his forgivenes.

I'm sorry I let my God not help him.  
And I blamed him of not running away like he said on his plan. He was a fool... things were bad and getting worse, and I remember he said he was gonna be the first one to leave if they got to that point.

All of this was brought by my selfdeprecation. I blame myself for not being able of helping him. I was mildly aware in my unconsciousness, I could have woken and attacked, avoid him getting hurt.

Bahamut… my path has been marked. I'll use all of my blessings, Divine or Necromantic as I see fit. This has been unfair, this has been evil, and it's been the worst I have allowed to happen. If this offends you, I'll find a God I can dedicate myself to, and that understand my methods.

You have been a great patron, but if I'm not worthy, I must leave your light.

Anyways, we tried to get the coffer out with some rope, but it didn't move. At least, the trap didn't get activated either.

A closer inspection, did reveal the coffer had a circle with three crystals in it, the draconic inscription says: "Blessed be those who do not fear thunder nor lightning." 

I hate riddles. I'm not smart enough for them. The best I thought of, was making everyone leave, and try the only thing that's worked in this evil place: Brute force.

I wend down once more when I tried to open the coffer with the gems in my hand. Apparently this was not the solution.

Then, the group tried to combine the crystals. I tried to focus for a bit, before I got woken up again, to try and learn better what happens while I'm unconscious.

The others tried combining the crystals I had, to see if they had an effect. They tried the red with the green crystal, and the one in the coffer turned clear.

then, blue with red turned blue. They turned it back, with the same crystal, and put green against the original red, leaving it clear.

Then, when they put the red one with the blue one, it turned green. when they combined blue with green, it turned blue too. Putting blue over it, turned it clear too.

Here I was woken up, when they grabbed the phylactery (along with a parchment, and a bag with 200 gold coins), we also heard a macabre laughter in the zone.

Zaldara. Or a spectre with her shape.

We all ran away, and at the exit, we saw behind all of us, Zaldara. Zaldara had tunics that Zordos recognized as belonging to his homeland. Her face is a decomposed remain. As expected of all undead.

Going out, we saw Callbrax. He was trying to make the teleportation circle work. Zaldara lifted her hand towards the circle, and attacked him. The impact hit Callbrax, twisting from pain.

Despite the pain, his spell worked, and we were transported between shining lights, before we were dropped in complete darkness.  
Zordos was the first one to wake, and Jhessail (Jhessail Evenwood, I think her name is), the new girl, was also there. Priestes Valerian woke up too.

We're in a forested area, so densely "populated", that it won't let the light go through. It looks like it was night already, and, despite the fact that we were in that horrible place during what felt like forever, I don't think we were in there for so long.

It looks like we were in the battle zone of Cloakwood, above the tomb we were visiting. There we found Ramallia. Zordos got his bearings about him, in full battle mode, and started looking around to see if Zaldara had followed us to this place.

Ramallia told us we had to give her the phylactery. She was acting odd, which made us suspect a little about her, but Jhessail indicated everything was alright.

Miss Mardred gave her the book. And I told her to destroy it once we're done. That thing can't keep on living, and causing others the pain it caused all of us.

Ramallia took us towards Zaldara. And she said we have something that belongs to her. This can be pretty bad, and I'll stop writing, because if she attacks us, I'll need both of my hands.

Gods of the pantheon, any of you, Please help us.


	6. Hasting's Diary >=I Part XX-XX-XXV

** We're all gonna die!!!!!!! D= **

Things at least are looking better...

During the fight, Zaldara spent all her time telling us we were using something that belonged to her. The phylactery, her book, seemed to be something very important for her. The first thing that happened, with how injured we were, is that we tried to negotiate. I may have been too straightforward and a bit clumsy when I told her we were too hurt to be a threat . In that moment, the negotiation didn't go too well, and Zaldara attacked Ramallia, a rock hand grew from the ground, and lifted her in the air, trying to crush her. Being attacked, Ramallia let the book go and Zordos, in a great impulse, grabbed it, he took it and he, miss Mardred and I, threatened Zaldara to force our conversation, since it looked like she wanted to avoid any damage to this thing, and with the threats, we managed to force her to talk to us. Of course, Zaldara was focused on the fact that Zordos (her slave? she spent all the conversation calling him slave) returned her book to her.

Miss Mardred lit up a torch and pulled it closer to the phylactery. When she did this, Zaldara calmed down somewhat, although she doesn't stop approaching us subtly. It looked like she wanted to throw some kind of spell out, so I also proceeded to threaten her, I don't think her book is able to dodge a Sacred Flame pretty easily.

While this happened, a lot of gigantic spiders went down through the trees, Jhessail saw them, since the rest of us were focused, and told us, so we were aware. When this happened, Zordos and miss Mardred had the same idea, and put the phylactery closer to the fire, to see how serious they were.

My nerves were torn to shreds, at that moment.

The good thing, Zaldara agreed to talk to us. The bad thing, I think all of us will have a great trauma related to spiders for the rest of our lives. You win some, you lose others, they said in my family.

Now, I didn't expect this, but Zaldara told us she isn't involved in Baldur's incident, and to top that off, it seems we were violating some kind of non-aggression pact... it did seem a bit harsh, but against a necromancer, you can never be too sure.

To make my future nightmares worse, Zaldara told me that whatever is causing the problem, is something more powerful than her! As if everything we just did was some sort of introduction to a game or something like that!!

Gods, I hate that damn Undead!!

Well, for better or worse, she knows what is the origin.

Some Zastaam guy was investigating these kind of magics, it's something equivalent to Death Circles, but more powerful. Another group that seems to be involved (I'm not sure of their name, the nerves, spiders, my own tiredness, and the horrible accent of half-rotten meat from Zaldara didn't let me understand who they were) sent some wizards and sorcerers to learn more from this magic, but they left the coast, and she said the magical influence seemed to come from the south.

Close to Calimshan.

She also told us that some guys already tried that kind of curse before, in the Neverwinter forest.

When we got the information we wanted, Zaldara asked us to leave the phylactery, in exchange for letting us leave unharmed. Zordos offered to leave the book behind, by himself, and the rest went on to retreat one by one. Until Zordos was left alone, and I stayed behind, in range for my blessings, to help him in case Zaldara didn't keep her word...

Ramallia, before she left, asked Zaldara where was the origin, and she said she should take a ship west. It seems they went that way.

At least Zordos could retreat calmly, and I stayed behind to... I don't know. That damn Imp hasn't stopped talking in hours, and it had me sick with his question bouncing around in my mind.

Before we left, and while her spiders tried to protect the phylactery, I turned to Zaldara. I didn't even know what I wanted to get by asking that question. It may have been despair, but I had to do it.

“was necromancy worth it?”

A stupid question, made by a stupid cleric. For a change, I guess.

Zaldara just told me she's immortal, weirdly proud of that, and that she will still be here when my bones are just dust. In a way, it took any possible indication that I would start using necromancy and got it out of my mind, but it doesn't stop being quite a morbid thing, that for a couple minutes I was even interested in the idea.

I'm even worse than I thought before.

Then, it's been a couple days coming back to the city, recovering a bit while still on the road. Here, we finally came back to Baldur. I didn't think I would miss the weird city, but here we are.

Ramallia paid for the entry toll, and her group took us to a zone called Little Calimshan. It's a pretty simple zone, full of people similar to Ramallia, several of them dress pretty similar to Hadir, now that I remember. Like everything else in the city, the zone is separated from the rest by a wall, pretty thick if I say so myself, but if it's made to protect them or keep them isolated, I wouldn't know.

By the little interactions we had (you know, because of the internal injuries and so on) people didn't really like Zordos. For a change, since he specializes in getting people not to like him.

The zone is pretty cheery, to be honest, and at least for me it's a happy change of mood, compared to what I wrote last time. Bazaars are full, people just walk around, without thinking how close death is. It's worrying and refreshing, takning into account my recent experiences.

Anyways, before I get really miserable, I must say that Hadir came to greet us, helping the wounded from his group, us, and Ramallia, taking us to Syndra's house in the area.

Syndra was very worried about Ramallia, and called several healers, to help Remy recover. Besides that, she also got some magical help for our injuries, and so that we could finally get all of our pain out of our systems.

Something I noticed, is that all conversations around us were in a different language. It seems they want to keep some secrets from us, or I'm just too paranoid, to the point where I doubt the simple people around me. Once we got help, and we were able to somewhat hold ourselves together somewhat, they took us to a few rooms nearby, one for each. Some of the group shared a few rooms, others, like me, just remained alone.

The others left, at this point. Priestess Valerian seems to have gone away, the weight of this endeavor was more than what she could stand, I think. The others... Well, I just think they all share common issues, or so I would believe

In the meantime, I did allow myself to be miserable in the room I got. I let my frustration out in the most useless method I could think of. Punching the wall with my bare fist. Barely avoiding breaking my hand and needing more healing magic again.

I felt so pathetic. So lonely. I can't follow Bahamut anymore.

Even less, now that I've chosen to use my own necromancy. Of course, I plan to use it to stop other necromancers, but you don't fight fire with fire. Or at least, you can't fight evil with evil. And I can't think of too many gods I can serve while I follow this logic.

I guess there's always Kelemvor... if he even wants to answer the prayers from some guy like me.

I'll spend a couple days thinking about a code, a law of my own, to make sure I don't turn into something like Zaldara, despite the Necromancy's corruption. And I'll keep helping people. Not like a hypocrite cleric who believes in the illusion of warmth after death, but rather as one that has experienced it and Knows the fear it may cause on someone.

And Zaldara will regret letting me go one day.

With this idea in my mind, and with a little bit of time while Syndra and the others organize things based on the information we obtained, we decided on the only logical action course: Shopping.

Miss Mardred went around to look how to change her money, and later, in the afternoon, she told me she found a Dwarf, who offered to change it for gems. If I'm not wrong, (I've been distracted for most of the day, with all about my determination and how complicated it is to make a code of conduct for myself) she changed it for a few sapphires. Based on what she told me, it seems the merchant was a tad frustrated with her apparent indecision. I did notice she had a goal she wanted to fulfill, but it seems the communication between the two of them was a bit difficult, and for a moment, even I believed she didn't know what she wanted to buy... I don't know, whenever I've gone shopping, it's because I already have in mind what I want, and I just go and ask for it, but I'm a dragonborn, and she's a dwarf, so maybe our cultures are far more different than what I thought at the beginning.

Zordos also told me he wanted to go shopping and find out what the shield we found in Zaldara's cave did. Zordos had a pretty good idea about what he wanted, but he's bad at talking, so he couldn't get too much of an edge with the merchants. The thing is that he's too rough with people, but I don't think he noticed that.

He told me about a couple shop owners, Yssra and Brackrel, and that they weren't too soft on him at the time of negotiation. It seems he tried to get some Healing Potions, but he couldn't buy as many as he wanted and he tried to convince them to give him a deal for the future, but I don't know how it went with that particular part of the negotiation, although he seemed to be pleased with whatever it was that he did. Sadly, he couldn't find out what the hell is the shield supposed to do.

Me, on the other hand, just went out for a couple things. I tried to look for Thomas, the offerings guy, but I couldn't find him, so I spent a while looking for a blacksmith, getting him to carve Nalfein's name on my mace, as a reminder of what I lost against Zaldara that day... I also asked him for a Silver symbol from Kelemvor, to see if my blessings still work when I pray to another god.

The blacksmith didn't seem very confident on that last request, but I don't need it to be pretty, but to have the shape of the scales and that, with some luck, it works to channel my divine magic.

This morning, we met with Hadir and Syndra to see what else did we have so we could do. They seemed desperate to get some help from us stopping this, whatever this is, and I'm already comitted, since I have goals I want to accomplish. To my surprise, the others wanted to continue with this until the end, even considering all the bad things that happened already.

It... It fills me with pride, knowing I have that kind of companions.

At the time of this talk, there was more tension than usual between Hadir and Zordos, and they asked the shield to examine it or take it for good, but Zordos wanted it, so he seems to have been tough with them, and things almost went out of control.

Luckily, Syndra managed the situation pretty well, and things calmed down a bit, also revealing the reason for such a problem between Hadir and Zordos. Apparently, from the place where Zordos comes, there were a lot of problems caused by his people against Hadir's people, and this fight was so hard that even now there is still a lot of resentment.

Hadir was part of Calimshan's resistance, against Zordos' group, and it seems he recognized that our companion didn't have a lot to do with it, and with some help, there won't be a lot of problems in the future... I hope.

As a bonus, Syndra was able to identify what the shield does, to Zordos' happiness. The shield seems to offer extra protection against projectiles, which is positive, but if there are any projectiles around, it will attract them. If Zordos keeps it, it's possible he will be the target of arrows or... maybe it includes spells, which would turn him into a gigantic target, willing or not.

Yeah, the rest of us may be fine, but Zordos worries me.

Well, that was last morning, but now I'm running to the blacksmith to pick up my things, and to be able to reach the boat they prepared to chase the source of whatever it is that this problem came from.

I hope we're fine this time.


	7. Hasting's diaries =’D Part XX-XX-XXV

I really need to have a serious talk with Hadir. This, what he's doing to us, is exploitation of labor. I know I agreed to it the other night, but this is abuse. Why do we have to get up so often before the sun is up?

I gave up Already. We got up supremely early, and I had to talk to him. He told us everything was almost ready, and we needed to hurry, since we departed today. After this, I went to get Mardred and Zordos so we can start walking. Zordos was a bit distracted, but it seemed he was already awake and he followed me. Miss Mardred is amazing, she wasn't only awaken already, she was even ready to leave when I went to look for her.

This woman is a hero wherever you look at her, except if you look at her interest in money, but no one is perfect.

We went out, and sought our boat, "Pegasus", now, we were in a rush, and Hadir said he would be joining Syndra, who's coming with us, while I gathered my things, and he said Syndra seemed to have an idea about where exactly did we need to go.

I really didn't realize how far we were from the city until we walked for a long time until it. I gotta exercise more, I don't like so much walking, so early.

When we got to the city, we realized we had to pay the entry toll, since we were outside it for a long time, so, since I think I'm one of the few that didn't spend all our money, I decided to pay for the tolls, and took advantage of the situation to pay for some month-long access pass. Since we're spending, if we come back in less time than that, everything would be ready.

After this, we went back to the Blacksmith, his name is Kenneth, and thank the gods he was already awake. With some conversation, he called me Master, for a reason I'm yet to understand, we got my things back. the holy symbol is pretty good, considering he says he's not a silversmith (goldsmith is the word that comes to mind, but I didn't ask for gold), it isn't pretty, but it's practical... The runes on the mace, Nalfein's name in Draconic, looks pretty good too, taking into account he doesn't really speak the language.

Now, with my equipment back, we routed our feet to the piers, which were on the way, since Kenneth's blacksmithy was between the gates and the pier. The only place, besides the fishermen's village just out of the city, with so much life at this time in the morning, is the pier.

with so many people going around, we had a bit of a hard time finding the boat, but luckily, considering I'm so tall, I managed to see Hadir, in the distance, and we got closer to him, slowly, in between the people. He told us we had to find the person in charge of the boat, so we could be guided to where we would be spending the travel time.

In the meantime, we found an odd guy that, in the middle of the busy ambiance of the pier, seemed to be tuning a lute, or a harp, or something. (Personal note: I should have really paid attention to what kind of instrument it is, since I will probably have to tell the guards what did I use to hit him, if he manages to drive me crazy with it).

He introduced himself on his own, without any of us asking, no signs that we wanted to start conversation, or anything, really, as Magnus Mundungus Mercer. He's quite the... Peculiar bard. Sure, let's go with "peculiar", who offered himself for the same trip we did.

He's human, young, for his race's standards, since I'm an adult since 15 I think, so he may as well be older than me. He's... Pompous? I don't know, he seems pretty extroverted, and has no qualm or issue socializing with other people... He said I'm... handsome? attractive? I don't remember, I was so embarrassed by that, that I just tried to change the subject of our conversation before I discovered exactly what he meant.

Miss Mardred (Gods bless her soul), asked him who set him up for the trip, and he said it was Remy, after he said this was a suicidal mission with perhaps a touch more happiness than what you'd expect from that concept. To top that off, he says I'm the leader of the group... this will be... weird.

Anyways, we went off to look for the person in charge, Grigg Ruddell, so he would take us to the bunkbeds we would be using, and he in turn sent us to Otis, an energetic Halfling - with more energy that what should fit in that tiny body - Who guided us to the little place under the deck, while he talked to us about the crew, and their problems, and about Captain Ortimay, the woman in charge.

It wasn't surprising, but Magnus offered to sing a little concert for Ruddell, if he wanted to, and also he offered to help with a little lover's argument between a guy named Jean Luc, and Moonshine. Writing this, I remembered he said he would make a couple poems for Miss Mardred, Zordos, and me. That will surely give me nightmares.

Since we're sharing a room, I played dumb, and asked to be put as far away from Magnus as we could get. I'm honest, and the guy looks like a nice guy, noble and I guess he's a great person too, it's just, he's somewhat invasive.

Well, once we were in place, we started our trip on boat. None of us seems to know if we're propense to seasickness, but at this point, it's kind of moot.

Each one of us dedicated our time to some different activities. Mangus, on his part, started working, seeing what was the situation between Jean Luc and Moonshine. It looks like Moonshine doesn't like the idea of being courted by Jean Luc. And the latter seems pretty proud of his conquests, and says he's got a lady in each port they go.

While I was walking by, I heard Magnus say he wasn't "limited" in the choices he has for courtship. He even mentioned Miss Mardred and I seem pretty attractive to him. I almost choked in sea breeze when I heard him say that kind of thing. Anyways, I saw him later, in the distance, talking to Miss Mardred, and it seems she rejected his advances with almost as much speed as the one she uses to hit someone with her Axe. It was almost fun seeing that.

With that, first day was over, and we all went to sleep.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I dreamt I was in some sort of barren land, with a cliff in front of me. Far off, I saw a city, pretty separated from where I was, so I couldn't see a lot of details. It was a comfortable, somewhat warm weather. It was a clear day, and in the nearby cliff, there was a lot of vegetation. There's a lot of blurry details, it was a dream after all, but out of nowhere, it became night, an unnatural one, and I found myself trapped in some sort of invisible cocoon.

I couldn't move too much, and it seemed made to keep me trapped, but, in my panic, I tried to get out of it. Luckily, with some brute strength, I managed to break it, and get out of the cocoon.

A voice said my faith was strong... considering how things went last time I tested my faith, it was probably mocking me. The cocoon shattered in several pieces, in silver motifs, and, from the cliff, I saw an enormous face come out, staring at me, almost tearing me apart with his eyes.

Scared, I asked if he was Lord Kelemvor, the god I thought would understand if I used my necromancy, but the giant face didn't like it at all. His long neck extended upward, and his blue eyes judged me.

Lord Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon.

He told me that, despite my faith, I didn't have to fall apart with him. He asked me why I did it, and I explained the situation. That it wasn't fair to follow his path, just ignoring his teachings.

He told me he understands, and that I must remember his precepts of Honor and Duty.

Something I remember, down to the letter, when I said what happened to Nalfein, is the part where he said:  
"Death is the price to pay for those who fight against the evil of the world", and my duty to him is getting rid of the evil we're trying to face.

After this, once more, he stated his precepts: Honor and Duty.

He also made me swear that I would serve him in the world, and, in exchange for it, he would continue giving me his power.

“Do not hesitate, Hasting. My will, it guides your path.” He said, before I woke up and started writing everything that happened like a maniac. 

Lord Bahamut pretty cool, to be honest. He scared me a lot, but... he almost seemed like a father, in the way he talked to me.

I went back to sleep as soon as I managed, and, in the morning, when I prepared and put my armor on, I realized my shield, which so far had nothing special in it, it now had the outline of Lord Bahamut on top of it.

In the morning, with a better state of mind, we decided to find out how, exactly, did the shield Zordos had was supposed to work.

The first test was using spells. Being a magical shield, Zordos had to spend a little bit of time getting attuned to it. When he was done, he stood up, and I threw a Guiding Bolt, not straight to him, but to the side, and the spell continued it's way, apparently unaffected by the shield's power.

The second test, we did with one of Zordos' Javelins. At this point, some of the boat's seamen seemed to think the Dragonborn and Tiefling were playing a weird game. This Javelin, despite the fact I really tried missing with it, took a weird turn mid-air, and hit Zordos almost dead in the chest. Luckily, the shield's magic, reduced the impact by a lot, and he didn't end up... as hurt as I thought he would end up.

Zordos, as Masochist the Supreme, wanted to run a third test. He left the shield over a box, and stood pretty far from it. Once more, when I threw it, it passed the shield by, and when I thought it would have been lost at sea, it turned mid-air again... and hit Zordos in the shoulder, this time, without the shield's magic, it hit him without any protection, and hurt him pretty bad.

I healed him a bit with my Cure Wounds, Zordos donned the shield once more, and threw the blue stone we took from Zaldara's tomb. When Zordos threw it, the Shield didn't deviate it, and hit me with it. It kind of gave me the bad impression that he was possibly mad, since he aimed for my face, with quite the push behind it, by the way.

At this point, a lot of seamen had gathered and were enjoying how we hit each other repeatedly. Now angry, he and I threw the rock to each other more due to anger, than to see how the shield reacted, really.

What we learned today was: The effect doesn't work if Zordos doesn't have the shield in his hands, since wearing it on his back, it still attracts projectiles and doesn't give him the benefit of the additional cover. We also learned it doesn't work when Zordos is the one throwing the projectiles. And that spells aren't attracted by it. Or at least mine aren't.

With that out of the way, I healed him a bit once more, with my healing kit, and we spent a bit of time resting. The sea is acting weird, over the boat's edge, as if there was something there, waiting. I sincerely doubt it. It's been quite a nice day to have it ruined by a battle in the middle of the ocean.


	8. Hasting's Diary =D Part XX-XX-XXVII

Even if Lord Bahamut does support me, I really need to keep my big mouth closed.

Just as I finished writing my previous entry, there was a notice (by means of yelling) of creatures at sea, trying to attack. I managed to run to the edge of the boat, while tying my shield to my arm, and saw many Sahuagin (I hope that's how you spell that, since I haven't been one to study creatures) and a shark on the side I looked at. Considering the amount of beasts that came aboard, it wouldn't have been weird if there were several of them.

In the bit we took to prepare, and organized a bit the chaos in the boat, several of them climbed up. A couple of them, quite a bit more ugly and bigger than the others, which we realized later, they were some kind of priests or priestess (you'll see why).

Miss Mardred was the first one to take action. Not sooner had one of them climbed up, she had already given them the Dwarven greeting, with a pretty nasty axe to the chest. Zordos, who saw the Captain being surrounded by two of those things, went out running to help, but one of the sahuagin who climbed, tried to hit him as he passed by. Luckily, since we had just finished hitting each other in our "trial", that attack failed, and he had free range to throw his javeline to the priestess chasing the captain. His attack rang true, but despite yelling out to get it's attention, it was still focusing on the captain.

Magnus, (Triple M, I should call him, with his name) tried, by yelling, to run his weapon through the sahuagin between him and Miss Mardred. (Note: ask for Magnus' age, he may be older than me, and I'm treating him like he's just someone else). He made quite a move - pretty artsy, yeah, but other than that, with little to no practical use in an actual fight - even taking some distance from the sahuagin, and obviously, he failed. Then, he played a weird melody in his lute, and during the rest of the fight, I felt I would just win against anything. (Ask him if this is the so called "Inspiration", some arcane Masters handle).

Grigg, Who is the second in command, I think (You really gotta pay attention, Hasting.) ran to the captain, trying to help her, but met face on with a sahuagin that was getting in the process of surrounding the captain. Luckily, this didn't surprise him, and he attacked it with both swords, but his way through, on those stairs, was pretty much blocked.

In the time I decided on which side of the boat I wanted to be (there were monsters on both the front and back), one of the sahuagin came out the sea, and landed in front of me, that took me by surprise, and blocked me for a couple seconds, while I got adjusted to the situation. In that time, Moonshine, with Jean Luc at her back, attacked the Sahuagin that had just tried to hit Zordos. She also fights two handed, but her second attack failed.

In a moment of unparalleled wit, I hit the sahuagin in front of me so hard, as if my hand had been guided. Hehe, I got so excited, that I yelled out "I'm sending you one, Lord Bahamut!" since I almost broke him with that hit.

With my hands full, I couldn't move a lot, but I could still see around me, every once in a while, when that thing wasn't trying to attack me. So, I saw when Captain Ortimay, surrounded, decided to jump from the part of the boat that has the steering wheel, and didn't seem to have measured well the height of that place, since she fell pretty bad, and sprawled out on the floor.

Next thing I saw, was that, apparently, the two freaking thousand sahuagin finally stopped climbing on the boat, and now, almost everyone had someone to fight with. Magnus, to kick things off, was flanked by two of them. Around now, Hadir came out of the lower part of the boat, with company, and started asking me what was going on. Unfortunately, I can't talk well and fight for my life, so I had to tell him to wait. Just looking around him, I'm guessing he added one and one, and figured out what was going on.

Hadir, now that I think about it, had some company with him. Two guys, one, pretty fragile, and dressed in an unusual robe, while the other guy looked almost as big as me, with everything and a full set of armor, even in this kind of heat. I thought for a while that he was that much of a self-hating person, although, during the fight, that armor turned out to be pretty useful.

Once more, I got distracted from my own fight when I heard the Priestess make such a horrible and throaty howl, that, for a couple seconds, I though there were undead on the ship. Apparently, this was the way it asked whoever their patron is, for divine assistance, because that made a flying trident, full of divine energy. A spiritual Weapon. With this, it tried attacking the new guy in the robe, and missed. Thank the gods, because the guy looks pretty puny, at least in the part of physical resistance.

Then, the sahuagin in front of Moonshine attacked her, but she dodged pretty easily by moving quite gracefully. I guess this is what Jean Luc likes in her, but Jean Luc really doesn't need to offer commentary on every single movement Moonshine does, he will distract her one day. Anyways, the one who didn't really dodge gracefully was Magnus, and the sahuagin hit him in the leg. Zordos, out of nowhere, was surrounded when the other priestess created her own spiritual weapon, and since the new company distracted Zordos, the sahuagin hit him, and hurt him pretty bad.

Miss Mardred attacked the sahuagin who hit Magnus, and tore its head out in a swing. (this makes my actions from further ahead in the fight bring some shame to my face) and Magnus managed to heal his wounds with one of his powers, pretty similar to my Cure Wounds... I should ask him what he's capable of doing.

The sahuagin I was fighting with, finally decided to actually attack me, but he lacked a bit of impulse, since I managed to dodge him easily. In the meantime, Grigg cut his own sahuaging so hard, that it didn't look to me like it was going to survive fighting him for a long period of time.

Now, I didn't see this, I was told this, but, apparently, from the front of the boat, the bow, I think, one of the sahuagin jumped from the high part to try and attack the new guy in the armor, and fell down. I do remember hearing the pained grunt, but in the middle of a fight, it was hard to know if that was an attack or not. What I did see, was the other guy, the one in the robe, said some arcane words, and threw fire from his hands, hitting the sahuagin on the ground. It looks like he's a wizard, I think, or a mage of some kind.

Then, I heard the Half-orc, Grimmald, yell out. It looked like another sahuagin hit her and cut her pretty deep. But she was still alive. I needed to focus on who was in a bad state, since after my little game with Zordos, I only had one healing spell available, and I had to be wise, to see who I could heal. In this mental distraction, I tried hitting the sahuagin with my mace, putting so much power in it, that I fell face-first to the ground. However I could, I stood up before that thing attacked me, and used the power Lord Bahamut bestowed on me. With the power imbued on my shield, and with my remaining strength, I pushed the sahuagin away, throwing it over the boat's ballistae, and then ran ahead to avoid it's escape. 

I heard Hadir yelling out, and then a horrible throat screech, so I guess he hit some sahuagin pretty damn hard with his two swords. In that time, now that I was closer, I could see the captain stand up, and start walking to a sahuagin who was attacking the little guy, Otis. Then, I heard the guy in the armor speak, and he blessed me, Hadir, and his friend, the mage. There's another cleric on board!! :D!!!!

Magnus was attacked by the sahuagin that had flanked him, when it tried attacking him, he hit him again on his legs. It looks like those beasts didn't like him trying to move so much, and were trying to incapacitate him. But, (again, I can't see everything, so she told me later) it looks like in the time this happened, Grimmald managed to kill the sahuagin she and Hadir were fighting against. She also told me that, the ugly throat singing thing that came from those things, seemed to be some sort of spell that paralyzes people. It seems they tried to stop Hadir and Grigg, and only managed to stop grigg.

Zordos, who actually was in my field of vision, risked running, and the spiritual weapon hit him in the back, while he tried to approach the sahuagin attacking Moonshine. It hit him, since he was distracted between her and his movement, and it looked like they wouldn't take long to end him. Since Jean Luc was in the way, I had to take a couple steps back to try what I wanted. In the meantime, Magnus attacked the sahuagin that attacked his leg, and seems like he killed it, though I didn't see it fall. I got distracted by the mage's words, and saw him throw fire out. But since the sahuagin were so wet, it didn't look like it hurt them too much.

When I took enough distance, enough to not hit either Jean Luc - Who recently got a harpoon stuck in his gut - or Moonshine, I took a deep breath, as much as I could, so I could manage to launch my Dragon Breath to hit my sahuagin, and the one fighting Jean Luc, but I think I choked on some salty breeze, because more than a cloud of poison, I let out a bit of gas, almost a belch, that didn't do as much as I expected it to do. (Note: use my breath more often, see if it's the lack of use).

Captain Ortimay, after I saw her stumbling through most of this problem, finally attacked something (the sahuaging fighting against Otis), and missed, both attacks. She doesn't seem to be having a good day.

The other cleric, who caught my attention since I knew he was one, said he was inspired, to some Tempus, and hit the sahuagin ahead of him so hard that he might as well have turned it to dust if he hit him just a touch harder. What I could barely see while I turned to keep going to my fight, were just blurs. The priestess seemed to use her spiritual weapon, but missed. The captain got hit by a trident, and Grigg, the other priestess tried to hit her with a sacred spell, Guiding bolt, if I saw it right, but for a "Guiding" spell, she was off by a lot.

Zordos turned around, to keep attacking the sahuagin who was chasing him since he left the spiritual weapon behind him, and left it pretty stunned, but not dead yet. At least I got some help at this point. Magnus came, and attacked the sahuagin who was fighting me, and it replied by hitting him pretty badly. In these seconds of distraction, I got enough time to use my Healing word on Zordos, who had been bleeding for a while, and I managed to heal him a bit, then, I hit the sahuagin so hard that I ripped its head off in one hit. It was so surprising that I yelled "First blood!" and, now that I think about it, after hearing what the rest of the crew has told me, came to be like the seventh, or eight. I'm so embarrassed... I hope everyone else was too busy to hear me.

Zordos was attacked by the sahuagin in front of him, and if I didn't heal him, he may not have been able to survive the impact, even with his pain resistance that his Barbaric rage gives him. At least that one was a good choice. I should keep thinking this way, to see who could need healing, and prioritize.

Anyways, Miss Mardred attacked the sahuagin that had been attacking Jean Luc, and when she took it for dead, she went to help Zordos kill his own. What she didn't see, was that the sahuagin lost balance, but didn't die, and managed to attack her before she stepped away from him. For vengeance, Magnus killed that sahuagin, and it looked like Grimmald finished off the priestess in the front of the boat.

oof.

That was a lot of fighting, for one diary entry. But there were a lot of people involved, so it was to be expected. I'm sure I've forgotten something here or there.

Either way, the two or three remaining things to kill, they just escaped, so things died off there.

Now, Valvar is the name of the guy in Armor, the one who came out with Hadir. He and Arobynn were, apparently, hired directly by Hadir to guard him during the trip, and came up to deck due to the commotion. Valvar is a cleric who worships Tempus, the Warhammer. (he said some other names, like Lord of Battles, and another couple extra things that don't make him seem pretty friendly in my opinion) and seemed to be proud of his heavy armor, since it protected him from everything those things tried to do.

Arobynn, on the other hand, is a wizard, and turned out to be pretty hurt in the battle. Which isn't really a surprise, if it really is true that wizards spend more time sitting down and reading, than getting their bodies to be stronger. It seems he was quite shaken in the fight, given his delicate constitution.

Magnus seemed to, or at least it looked like that to me, like he had a healing spell, and decided to ignore Arobynn to heal himself... I guess I can understand his self-preservation instinct is pretty high, but he could have waited for Arobynn to leave before he healed himself.

Either way, to make him feel uncomfortable, I asked him his opinion about his "Glorious Suicidal Quest" which he had embarked to, and he seemed a bit more realistic about it now. Which is something good, so he doesn't just run around looking for some "Glorious" way to get us all killed.

This was a couple days ago. Since then, we've taken some time to rest, or heal ourselves, and try to get to know each other a bit more.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After almost 7 more days of traveling, we recovered, and saw in the distance the pier: We're in Chult Island.

Our ship docked in Nyranzaru's port. There's a lot of ship docks, and the place is pretty colorful. There's several new building, as well as some others that are older, the older ones have a special kind of charm, as if they were relics. The whole port is full of bright colors, something I hope, reflects the mentality of the island's inhabitants. the vegetation is also impressive, and the buildings are, apparently, decorated by the locals themselves.

The peoples dress with pretty light clothing, and have dark skin colors, regardless of their varied races. The locals have obviously gotten used to the weather of the island, this kind of heat is pretty impressive.

Off in the distance, we could see pretty big reptiles these people seem to use as beasts of burden. Magnus thinks they're relatives of mine. I'm not sure if he said it in a joking manner, or if he really believes it. Worrying, in both scenarios, but for different motives each.

Anyways, a lighthouse, with a bright flame is greeting us, and Captain Ortimay officially welcomes us to Chult, her home. Again, off in the distance, we saw a giant statue of one of the locals, covered in loincloth, and with a gorilla's skin cloak (I think, and if it is, it's probably a local species) and he has in the neck, a sort of belt, holding the cloak, made out of monkeys' tails. He's got an oval-shaped shield in one hand, and a short lance on the other.

Magnus, who said he knew the guy in the statue, neither Arobynn nor I believed. In an attempt to get a better image, he asked the Captain "Which version of the story does she know"... Magnus is gonna get in trouble one of these days, and I'm not really sure if it'll be funny, or dangerous. Either way, the Captain says the guy turned to statue was a king that gathered the tribes so they could end the undead army's plague, before the actual conquests from Calimshan.

Since it may be related to our quest, we asked for more details about the war, and the undead. The Captain said the undead army's captain was eliminated, and their group disbanded, so, now there's no more army. An ending that looks like taken from a fairy tale, as I don't think creatures like undead have just disappeared... it's likely they just hid, or something of the sort...

Among the details, Miss Mardred asked if the undead had been summoned by something they knew of, specifically, a book, like Zaldara's, but these undead weren't summoned by a book, but by the ones who opposed their God, Ubtao. Jean Luc, next to us, added the fact that among the locals, there's a belief that the giant reptiles in the coast, which they use as beasts of burden, are the sons of Ubtao.

Magnus asked me, as if I'm the leader (I really hope he's not serious, because in stressful situations, I try to pry open electric chests by using brute strength. D:) what's the next step on the plan. Since he asked me, anyways, I paused to ponder things for a second, and then I said it would be useful to know more about that Undead army, and find out if there's a temple Necromancers can use, or if the peoples are also affected by sudden diseases or death, or knows anything about them.

When she heard us, the captain said we should go to the Red Bazaar, looking for the tavern where we would stay, and that it was past the marketplace. She warned us about bothering the merchant princes, since they control a big part of the trade, and those kinds of things. They must be important people in the local economy, so I guess they could influence law or stuff like that. I just hope they're good people.

Jean Luc recommended Magnus to go to Zune's temple, so he can take a big bath, maybe with massages.  
For some reason, I suspect he doesn't specifically refer to actual "massages" when he says that...

Welp, here we go again: New place, Undead threat, and the horrible shadow that indicates we may get into trouble.

At least I was able to talk to Lord Bahamut, and the code of conduct I've made for myself, in regards to necromancy, seems to be somewhat logical. I hope it works well in the future.


End file.
